Abstract: The model of the interferometric inverse synthetic aperture radar (InISAR) three-dimensional imaging is proposed when the angle between the target and the antenna axis is relatively large. The measurement error induced by the motion compensation error is discussed in detail and the motion compensation scheme is presented. Because the phase difference is 2π-periodic, the influence of the motion compensation error on the mearsurement result is also periodic, which may cause the ambiguity of the image in the cross-range. In this method, the phase of the image’s barycentre is estimated, and then the barycentre is used as a reference for compensating the phase diferrence for the correction of the target’s cross-range shift. The scatterers’ height and width measured are not the correct coordinates of the target because they are not obtained in rectangular coordinates. The formula for transforming the measured coordinates into rectangular coordinates and generating a correct 3D image is given. Finally, the simulation results are given.

Key words: interferometric inverse synthetic aperture radar (InISAR), three-dimensional imaging, motion compensation, the phase of the target's barycentre, coordinates transform